Category Archives: NaBloPoMo 2011

Picking out talent

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I’ve watched a lot of American Idol over the years but other than the season with Carrie Underwood, George never really got into it at all. One thing I always found with that show was that I often managed to pick either the final winner or someone who got down to the last two or three. The talent always seemed to be a bit skewed.

Since the American season of The X Factor started George and I have been watching although I miss some of the performances because I’m still on my way home. We watch it together each week and have been enjoying it tremendously. The talent on that show is huge and although I definitely have my number one favourite singer, there are so many people that are amazing that the winner could be just about anyone at this point.

I’m pretty partial to Melanie Amaro, Rachel Crowe, Astro, The Stereo Hoggs, Stacy Francis, and well, yeah. I like a lot of people. They’re all so mind-blowingly good. Astro in particular bowls me over with how much stage presence he has and how much he already sounds like an established rapper.

However, my choice for who I would like to see win comes down to someone who has an incredible voice but also sings in ways that make me believe I would put her album on my iPod. She’s only 14 years old but she has so much vocal control and personality on stage, and if I were voting I’d be voting for Drew Ryniewicz.

She sounds like a cross between the lead singer of The Cranberries and Sarah McLachlan. I would buy her CD in a heartbeat, she’s amazing.

Are you watching? Who’s your favourite?

Halfway there

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Although it’s only Tuesday night I’m already halfway through my week which is strange. I keep thinking that it must be Wednesday. It’s because we all have a day off on Friday and that’s something that I’m not used to as an ex-Montrealer. Friday, which is the 11th, is Remembrance Day. In the province of Quebec it’s not considered a holiday. We always did the minute of silence at 11 am but that was pretty much it. Kids had school, people worked, and you hoped that you’d remember to stop at 11 and, well, remember.

Here in Nova Scotia and everywhere else across the country it’s a bigger deal. It’s considered a bank holiday and as a result many companies are indeed closed that day so I won’t be at work. All the schools are closed; any Remembrance Day services in the schools are on the 10th because the kids will be at home on Friday.

I like it. I mean, I like it for all the obvious reasons like having a short work week and a longer weekend, but it’s more than that. I like that a day meant to celebrate all of those who have served in wars and to remember their sacrifices is a day that doesn’t require us to cram all of that gratitude into 60 seconds of silence.

I do plan on sleeping in on Friday but I’ll definitely be up in time to pay proper respects.

Complicated eating

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Anyone who knows me even reasonably well knows that I love to eat. I adore food, and lots of it. On my first day of training the instructor asked us what was meant to be an uncomplicated “get to know each other” question by having us say what our favorite food is. Stumped, I said, “well, almost all of it.” After the laughter stopped I clarified by saying I don’t have a favorite because I love (good and authentic) Chinese food, Mexican food, Italian food, seafood, and the list goes on.

One of the complications with my current schedule is that it runs through a couple of meal times. I eat my breakfast at home at 10 am and I can’t really eat it any earlier than that or else I’ll be rooting through my bag for a snack by the time I’m on the bus. I get to work right around what is normally considered lunch time, I have a really early supper time, and then I’m usually starving once I get home.

The solution for me is to pack a ridiculous amount of food each day. I feel like a goof with my bag full of things to eat but it beats hitting the over priced and unhealthy nearby fast food places.

As I said I eat my breakfast at home which is almost always two pieces of toast with peanut butter. Prior to that I drink my coffee around 7:45 while getting the kids fed before school. I pack some form of sandwich for my lunch (usually cold cuts, but today I had leftover pork tenderloin in my sandwich, yum) which I eat after I arrive at work while reading in the lunch room. At some point, usually a half hour in to my shift I pop one of those microwavable Campbell’s soup in a cup things in to heat up and I can then drink that at my desk while I work (I’m partial to the garden tomato flavor). I have to have that or a yogurt at that point because one sandwich just isn’t enough. That usually gets me through to my break at which point I have a yogurt or granola bar.

I usually bring leftovers for my supper, only buying something if there weren’t any leftovers to be had. Today was one of my favorites. On Saturday night we had tacos and there was plenty that didn’t get finished up. I take a container with meat to reheat, a container with chopped lettuce and tomatoes, a container of grated cheese, and a little container with sour cream. After heating the meat in the microwave, I toss in the rest of the ingredients and break up a couple of hard taco shells over the whole thing, mix it up and eat a taco salad.

It’s stupidly delicious. It’s embarrassing how much I’m looking forward to having the last of it tomorrow.

I don’t normally eat anything on my last break, especially since I discovered the amazing massage chair in our lounge (I mean I knew it was there, I just didn’t know how incredibly well it works) which I tend to use at that time. That’s fine but I’m usually really hungry when I get home, at which point I make the kids’ lunches and then root through the kitchen for something to eat.

I feel like all I do all day is eat, but it’s working so far.

What do you like to take to work for your meals?

Impromptu Saturday plans

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One thing that I love about living in a house instead of our old apartment is that it’s much more conducive to entertaining. In our old place we used to have people over for birthday parties and once in a blue moon we’d have one person over for supper, but that was about it. We’ve already entertained more here in the past five months than we did in five years.

Something that I’ve always loved is impromptu plans. I loved having nothing in particular to do and then suddenly being invited over for dinner and laughs with good friends. This weekend George’s sister is in town and we picked her up from the airport with the intention of just hanging out, having some tacos, and maybe having a couple of people over for a couple of hours.

Instead we ended up having a houseful of people, including two kids for Hayley and Breanna to play with, we all ate supper, and nearly cried from laughing so hard at all the joking around that was going on. Had I planned ahead I probably would have been mildly stressed (not too much, but a little bit I’m sure), but since it was all an impromptu afternoon and evening it just ended up being a good time without any worrying.

The rest of my weekend involves a little more of the same; some brunch with my family tomorrow morning, relaxing in the early afternoon (maybe some yoga?), introducing my sister-in-law to the carrot-apple-celery-ginger juice, and then having some people over for a good old Sunday night roasted something or other dinner.

That works for me as far as weekend plans go.

Learning to read

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I still remember back when Hayley first started to learn to read back in 2008. It was so exciting to hear her putting those words together and making the connections of the sounds.

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(And wow, is she ever small in that picture!)

Breanna doesn’t quite read fully yet but she’s starting to recognize words and as a result of that combined with some memorization, she’s just about there. Every Monday morning each kid in her class picks a small basket of books for the week. From that basket she picks two books to bring home to read.

Since I’m not home to do reading at bedtime I read to her every morning before school and fill out her reading log for her. Sometimes, though, she reads to me. She got a book called Hedgehog is Hungry on Thursday, practiced it a few times at school, then read it to me this morning when we finished doing breakfast and getting ready.

I love listening to her read to me.

If you’re curious, Hayley does all her reading at night. She reads chapters in her books or flips through a handful of her old favorite storybooks. Therefore, her thing in the morning is that she gets ready for school and as long as she’s all done in time she can play on the computer for about ten minutes.

Growing up is sad sometimes because you kind of want them to stay little, but learning to read is pretty exciting.

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Making time to make space

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Ever since starting to work I’ve been finding it just about impossible to fit in the amount of yoga that I used to do. Back in the not-so-distant past I would usually do it in the evening after getting the kids off to bed and it wasn’t unusual for me to do a full hour. These days I get home too late to get started with a yoga routine (although I sometimes do a quick before-bed gentle routine right in bed) and I don’t really have the time to do an hour every morning because I’m busy tidying up the house and getting ready for work.

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However, if I convince myself that no, I really don’t need to wash my hair today (my hair is pretty dry, it’s really only necessary to wash it every second day) and that I can just hop in and out of the shower then I can find the time to get in 20 minutes or even half an hour. The time that I don’t have to devote to blowdrying my stupidly thick and overly long hair is time that I can devote to getting my Om on instead.

This morning I was showered, dressed in yoga gear, and back down in the living room by 9:30 and I generally don’t eat my breakfast until 10 (otherwise I’d be starving by the time I actually get to work!). That gave me half an hour to roll out my mat and run through some routines. I did a round of Sun Salutations, a balance sequence, a de-stressing routine, and topped it off with a strength building routine. The only thing I forgot to do – and I just remembered now – was to end it all with a Savasana but maybe I’ll throw one in before I get changed into work clothes.

I’ve had to let a lot of things slide since starting my job but this is one of those things that I just can’t ignore. I did let too many days pass without yoga at first and the side effects of that were quick and obvious. My legs started aching, as did my hips. The latter is probably due to sitting. My shoulders began tightening up because of my unintentional hunching (I try to catch myself doing it and straighten back up) and then not opening them up with yoga. The biggest thing was feeling a sense of anxiety start to creep back in and that was definitely what kicked me in the ass to get me back on track again.

I may not be able to do an hour a day six days a week anymore but I can do what I can during the week and then do something longer and more intense on the weekends. It’s important enough to me and to my overall well-being that I can’t afford not doing it. As long as I can carve out even five or ten minutes and do something most days I’ll be fine.

Namaste! 🙂

Fright Night

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Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo, a tradition I enjoy wherein I (along with other participants) will post to my blog daily throughout the month of November. I’ve found it harder to keep up with stuff online since I started working but I want to at least give it a try.

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With yesterday being Halloween and my work shift being into the evening hours I was saddened to think I would miss taking the kids out trick-or-treating. Luckily for me I have an awesome manager who understands what it’s like to try to juggle work, family, and life and so she told me I could come in for an earlier shift as long as I put in my full eight hours. I was home in time to shovel a sandwich down my throat and get the kids dressed up for collecting loot. Hayley decided to be a devil and Breanna wanted to be a bee so badly that I was very happy to find a black and yellow striped t-shirt to go with her wings and bee hat.

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It turns out that our new neighborhood is awesome. There are a lot of families so there were plenty of kids out trick-or-treating and almost every house was lit up with candy to give out. In fact, so many people were giving out treats that after only going up and down two streets both kids had overflowing bags (and they each had two bags so that’s saying a lot). Both Hayley and Breanna saw some kids from their classes too so they were happy about that.

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After those two streets we dumped out the bags and drove over to George’s cousin’s house so the kids could see some of their family and I ended up taking them up and down his street too – more for the fun and less for the candy.

After coming home we had so much candy and so many mini chip bags that it’s pretty much ridiculous. No one could eat that much and survive so it will be carefully stored out of sight to be doled out in small amounts. Eventually I figure we’ll have to just toss most of it or we’ll never live through the sugar rush and crash cycle.

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It was really weird to be going out for Halloween without our friends back home but we had a good time. I am so grateful that I got to be there to take them out and spend the evening with them.

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How was your Halloween?

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